You+Make+the+Call

Overview

In a kid's league the Yankees had a one run lead on the Red Sox. The Batter that was up was the best on the Sox team, while the batter on deck was the worst on the team. So the Yankees decided to walk the best hitter and strike out the worst hitter to win the game. That should have been the entire story, but it wasn't. The worst hitter was a kid named Romney. He is a cancer survivor and was on growth hormone and had a shunt in his brain. There was an outrage during the game in the crowd, and in the town after the fact. People said things like the Sox's coaches should be tarred and feathered for picking on the kid who survived cancer. The facts are that the Sox just played to win that day as it was a championship game. The circumstances are just unfortunate, yet in the end Romney was inspired to practice his batting so one day he can be the kid that they walk.

The article impacted us by making us think what we would we do if we were in his shoes. We discussed that we wouldn't want to give the player any special treatment because he said that he would never want to be treated differently. However, in this stage which was little league it was the wrong call but baseball strategy wise it was cleaver but bold. The lessons we learned from the article are that a game is only a game and the kids are playing at that age not to win but to have fun.

Quote

"So ... do you pitch to the star or do you lay it all on the kid who's been through hell already? "

This quote explains the entire article for the most part. Do you pitch to the best hitter and possibly lose the game, or do you walk him and have a better chance at a strikeout. It comes down to playing a good game of baseball. It's strategy. The coach also claims that he didn't know Romney's situation but if he did he would have done the same thing.

Link [|Walk or Play]

If you were in coaches shoes, would you have walked the best hitter and have the worst hitter up or would you pitch to him? if you knew the worst hitter had cancer what would you do? What is overall reaction of the article.